


Midnight in the Garden of Good and Neutral

by RunekeepersHymnal



Series: Gatecrashers [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, F/M, Family Drama, M/M, Other, Spoilers through the current episode of campaign 2, Spoilers through the end of campaign 1, Vax's discomfort with nudity, unbetaed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:13:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunekeepersHymnal/pseuds/RunekeepersHymnal
Summary: Set immediately after the first chapter of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, this is Molly's perspective of what happens after Caleb is brought back to life.  Features family angst, Vax's discomfort with nudity, a lot of identity and memory issues, etc.I am not caught up on Campaign 1, only made it through episode 61 so far, so my version of Vax is based on that, and what I know from the wiki.
Relationships: Background Keyleth/Vax - Relationship, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast, background Vex/Percy - Relationship
Series: Gatecrashers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584820
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Neutral

They tended to meet every midnight, because the in-between world which bridged the Divine and the mortal needed ceremony, symbolism, the slack but well-tethered strings of sympathetic magic.

Also, they were all mostly silly, flashy, melodramatic fools who just liked the gravitas they thought meeting at midnight leant to their discussions.

They liked "discussions" because it sounded slightly more dignified than what it usually was: Bickering.

By all evaluations of any objectivity, Molly and Vax should have gotten on like a house on fire. When Molly had first arrived, Camelia and the Traveler had been his first guides and eventual friends. They had both mentioned, Camelia factually, the Traveler salaciously, how much Molly and Vax had in common. They were both ferociously loyal, nimble in fighting rather than relying on brawn, and both very open-minded in their attractions, but virtually powerless in the face of an increasingly powerful, socially anxious redhead. Vax loved pranks, Molly loved jokes, they were both generous to the point of absurdity, and neither of them took things too seriously unless those things were serious. But then, a great deal in their lives had been quite serious.

And then Molly and Vax had been introduced. Vax had frozen in place, briefly, seemingly stunned, nodded at Molly stiffly, and left almost immediately. 

Camelia described this behavior as unprecedented. The Traveler had grinned in delight. 

At first, it wasn’t obvious that Vax was avoiding Molly. He had been out of the mortal world far longer than Molly and Camelia, and thus had already been tasked with many more responsibilities than the other two, so it was not uncommon for him to be gone for long stretches. After Vax’s eighth or ninth, “Oh, would you look at the time,” exit when Molly appeared, however, Molly took the hint. 

It was all fine. Molly didn't need everyone to like him. Vax's Ioss.

Then, after five long months, Caleb went unconscious in a fight, and the rest of the Nein wasn’t able to bring him back up. Caduceus cast a spell on him to keep him resurrectable for a bit longer, but he was here, he was in this in-between world. Molly raced to him, as fast as his feet would move him, as fast as he could fold the miles between where he was and where he needed to be. He was aware of the dark winged shadow overhead, flying in the same direction, but the Raven Queen would have to wait her fucking turn.

Molly made it to a tree, dressed in his favorite moon-white robe, lined with an even more vivid version of his old coat's pattern, and waited.

Then he climbed the tree, decided that was stupid, climbed back down, back up  _ again, _ draping himself over a branch and, in a moment of panic as Caleb approached, Molly materialized a bunch of grapes in his hand.

He wanted to go to Caleb. Moonweaver, Molly wanted to, but there were rules. Caleb had to come to him. If Molly went, then anyone was allowed, the Traveler, Vax, who knew what else. 

Molly hated how far it was, how Caleb lurched and struggled, but his foolish heart swooped and soared like his namesake at the fact that Caleb didn't hesitate, didn't take a single step off the straight line to Molly until he collapsed in the dust at the base of Molly's chosen tree.

The time that followed was something Molly had never thought he would have. He got to tell Caleb the truth, in a way, about the feelings they would’ve had for one another, without having to fully let slip that Molly had them already, had them still. He got to warn Caleb about the plans of the Betrayer gods, got to reassure him about the Mighty Nein’s place in the world. 

He got to have a pillow fight with and instigated by Caleb Widogast, and if Molly hadn’t been in love before, he would’ve fallen the instant he saw Caleb laughing with him in a rain of white feathers.

All the same, Molly had to let Caleb go back, no matter how much they both might have wanted more time. Molly walked Caleb back to life like one courting lover walking another back home after a first outing, saw his soul safely tucked back into his healed body, and then made the bittersweet walk back to the Astral plane, to Molly's home just outside the Divine Gate. It would be midnight soon enough, time to meet even if Molly and the others had nothing much to discuss.

Molly was riding that aching high, playing with a white feather that had found its way into his robes, when Vax’s voice came out of the dark.

“Bit selfish, don’t you think, mate?”

Molly took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He should have told Vax, ‘not now,’ should have tried to ride the high of his joy and cradle the mourning of Caleb’s absence for a bit longer, but with six words, Vax had shattered the moment. Molly just put on a bright smile and said,

“Caleb needed to go back,” Molly replied. “It wasn’t his time. Otherwise, you’d’ve gotten to meet him.”

Vax scoffed.

“Yeah, it’s not him I’m talking about,” he replied. 

“Then what  _ are _ you talking about?” Molly said, the veneer of pleasantry and amusement wearing thin. Vax shook his head in disgust.

“Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you? You’re dead. Moonweaver’s pet or not, you are not fucking alive any more.”

What was this, some sort of power play? The Raven Queen reminding them all that if it weren’t for her, they wouldn’t be in this position?

“You don’t fucking say, Vax’ildan!” Molly replied, grin growing wider and sharper. “There’s a lot of that going around up here, so  _ what? _ ”

“So why are you professing your fucking love to someone who’s alive?” Vax snapped. “I mean, what the fuck?”

Molly’s smile shattered, and Vax plowed onward.

“A good friend of mine said ‘Life needs things to live,’ which is fucking stupid, but it’s also true. Living people need to actually live their lives, not pine after someone they know is dead because you were too much of a coward to say it when you were alive.  _ That’s _ selfish. Putting that on your wizard now is selfish, there’s no other word for it.”

Molly stared for a moment before laughing, thin and bitter.

“You fucking hypocrite. You  _ fucking _ hypocrite, Vax, like you don’t show up in Zephrah every single day."

Molly was pinned to the tree before he finished the last word, Vax's pointy pale face twisted in fury and sorrow.

"That is  _ different.  _ We were in love when we were alive. We were together for years. We saved the world again and again. I loved her longer that 'you' were ever alive in the first fucking place. I earned my visits with her, and she will be alone for hundreds, maybe thousands of years longer. You knew that man for two fucking months and you decide,  _ after _ you died on him, you decide to try to take any chance he has of living his life, falling in love, getting married, children, dying peacefully in his sleep, you decided that telling him your feelings was so much more important than that."

Molly bit his own lip and drew blood, and the grey of Vax's eyes clouded over with black tears, though his grip didn't let up.

"You think you know," Molly hissed. "You're so obsessed with your own love and your own fights and your own fucking tragedy that you're blind to anyone else's."

"Well he certainly is now, Mollymauk!" the Traveler laughed, stepping through a doorway of light almost as quickly as he’d carved it into the dark. "Mimi, Vax and Molly started the meeting without us, naughty things."

"Wonderful," Camelia sighed irritably, flower petals from the tree cascading down and coalescing into her form, autumnal scarlet hair and chestnut down fur and seemingly endless height. "And against my tree as well."

"This little shit doesn't know anything," Vax snarled. "Two months old, right? Two months of fucking about until he got himself killed, and he's  _ still _ fucking about with his friends lives." 

The Traveler laughed, draping himself over Vax's shoulder, his grin beaming out of the shadows of his hood.

"Oh, is that frowned on, Vax, dear?" the Traveler asked. "That may put a bit of a crimp in our plans, as I don't think the Betrayers are aware of those rules."

"Get off me," Vax hissed, turning his head towards the Traveler, trying to shrug him off and only succeeding in jostling Molly. “Of course you’d be defending his selfishness, what a shock.”

_ "Go fuck yourself, you miserable bastard,"  _ Molly snarled in Infernal, relishing Vax’s flinch.

"That looked like it stung," the Traveler commented. 

"I've heard better from a gnome having a shit; fuck  _ off _ , Artagan!"

Silence fell after that as Vax’s blackened eyes went wide and he dropped Molly abruptly, trying to catch hold of the Traveler instead. His hands went right through the green cloak and Vax crashed to the ground, having tackled precisely nothing.

“Don’t,” Vax said, turning onto his back, wiping at his eyes and searching wildly for the Traveler. 

“A wager is a wager, Vax’ildan,” a voice came from behind the tree as the Traveler emerged from behind it. The Traveler reached up and tossed his hood back, shaking out his hair and smiling down at Molly, then reached a hand down to help Molly to his feet.

Molly had never seen the Traveler’s face. As far as he knew, even Jester hadn’t. He looked like a fine-boned, handsome elf, his eyes a vivid jade green, the tips of his ears poking through cascading red curls. 

“He doesn’t  _ want _ to know, damn it, and I don’t want him to!” Vax shouted, about to charge forward, but restrained by Camelia before he could. 

“He needs to know, Vax,” she said, calm and kind, putting both hands on his shoulders.

“And I want him to know, pretty bird! You spilled my secret; it’s only fair!” the Traveler said, brushing Molly off, charming grass stains out of his robe. He took Molly’s sleeve and, because they were all ridiculous, waved his hand so that a fainting sofa appeared. 

“Traveler, what the fuck is going on?” Molly asked at last, staring over at Vax, who’d gone from being held back by Camelia to just being held. 

“Please, call me Artagan,” the Traveler replied, sitting on the sofa and patting the empty space beside him. “And Vax has just lost a bet that we made moments before your arrival. I knew him when he was alive, you see, and he helped me get to where I am today. But I had a secret that needed keeping, and so did he, so we agreed not to tell the other’s.”

“Your name?” Molly asked. 

“Gonna spill a  _ lot _ more than that--” Vax threatened, but Camelia gently turned him towards her. 

"Do you want to go for a walk?" she asked, smoothing Vax's hair back.

"No," Vax replied, a little quaver in his voice that Molly wasn’t sure if he imagined. "If he's spilling  _ my  _ guts for me, I want to at least make sure the blood comes out the right color."

The Traveler did not seem offended by this, instead waiting patiently for Molly to sit. Molly settled down beside him, still looking at the tension being broadcast by Vax's shivering wings.

"Tell me, Molly, doesn't anything about Vax'ildan seem familiar?" 

Molly scoffed.

"How would I know? We've spent the entirety of our acquaintance avoiding each other."

The Traveler-- Artagan, Molly supposed he should start getting used to it-- touched Molly's chin lightly, and Molly turned to look at him with exasperation.

“I'd ask if Jester knows that you're like this, but I'm sure she does and she's into it.”

“Astute as ever, but let's focus on you and Vax, dear,” Artagan smiled. “He doesn't seem familiar?"

Vax turned back to them.

"For fuck's sake, Artagan, just get on with it,” he muttered, defeated.

Artagan stuck his lip out in the most dangerous looking pout Molly had ever seen.

"You're no fun anymore, Vax, do you know that?" Artagan snapped his fingers, having taken on Molly's own appearance. 

"You've got my tattoos backwards,'' Molly groused, only to see his own nose squinch up in confusion.

"Of course, you're used to mirrors," Artagan said, snapping his fingers and swapping the sides. "Take a good look, and..."

Slowly, the tattoos faded into nothing.

"Those were really expensive!" Molly complained.

"Shh. Concentrate."

Now, Artagan-Molly's horns shrank away, the jewelry turning into fireflies and drifting off, and the violet of his skin began to fade. His curls slowly uncoiled, falling down blade straight. Eventually his skin turned to a pale bronze, and the violet of Molly's hair deepened to black.

Molly shifted uneasily. The final changes set in, Molly's sharp fangs turning to blunter canines, and his eyes clearing like when his blood curse faded from someone's eyes, revealing grey irises.

"Ringing any bells, 'mate?'" Artagan asked. Molly shrugged.

"I've just got one of those faces," he replied. 

The thing of it was, the face that looked back at Molly was still Molly's, just Molly's if he had been born human, a bit of elvish blood. Molly made human wasn't identical to Vax, and that was what had Molly so shaken. If this metamorphosis had just resulted in another Vax, Molly would have thought that this was just another Traveler prank, but they weren’t identical. Artagan's version of Molly's face made human with some elvish blood, not truly half, could’ve been Vax’s brother, perhaps a son. Vax wasn't looking at Artagan at all, but at Molly, Vax's eyes glassy with unshed tears that he dashed away with the feathers at his wrist.

"You look so much like your mum," Vax murmured, voice breaking, and what was Molly to do with that?

“I wouldn't know. You’ll have to excuse me,” Molly said, standing. “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

And he walked away.

Once he had stepped away a few paces, he called upon the Moonweaver and retreated back to his wagon not as a tiefling, but as ribbons of light. Reaching it far faster than he could’ve walked, or than a certain raven could’ve flown, Molly flowed through at every angle, into every crack or knothole in the wood of the wagon, through every tear in the silk that would’ve been so, so impractical on the road, nowhere near as sturdy nor as waterproof as oiled canvas. 

The ribbons of light coalesced back into Molly’s physical form, and he curled up on the same cushions, amongst the same loose feathers Caleb had spilled not two hours ago. He sat among the chaos left behind from his time with Caleb, from Caleb  _ playing  _ with him, joyfully, freely, and Molly felt tears slipping down his face. 

He waved a hand, summoning the feathers together, light weaving around them into a fabric, the same colors as Caleb’s hair, a shimmering coppery silk, shot through with bronze and gold. Molly clutched it to his chest, buried his face in it and let himself have one heaving sob. 

Fucking Vax.  _ Fucking _ Vax. Hating Molly this whole time for something Lucien had probably done, because Molly had never seen Vax in his life until it was over. 

WelI. Fuck you too, Vax, Molly thought. He got up, opened the door in the wagon and stepped into his bath house, breathing in the steam.

He shocked off his robe and snaps his fingers to remove his jewelry because he just didn't have the patience for anything else right now. He stepped into the hot perfumed water, and considered crying some more, but gave up on the idea pretty quickly.

He'd decorated the walls of the bath house with beautiful frescoes of his friends in the same style as his tarot cards. Beau was strength, blue robes cascading around her in perpetual motion. Jester was the high priestess, framed within a doorway instead of seated. Fjord was Temperance pouring water from one hand and blood from the other, sword splitting the two streams to swirl around it. Yasha was his Moon, hidden at times but never gone, not really, just doing the perfect dance of her phases, his true north, his charm. Nott had been many things, but since Molly had learned all she'd endured, she had remained steadily the Empress, ruling mother and queen of her family, ever since. She had six arms, holding a mask of her goblin face obscuring her halfling one from just below the eyes and down, holding her porcelain doll mask in another, her crossbow, her gun, an alchemical vial, and a button.

Usually, Caleb was the magician exactly as he'd appeared in the deck, but their visit had sent Molly's unconscious running wild and redecorating. The fresco was labeled "The Lover," singular and it was just Caleb, coatless, feet bare, his book harness is slipping from one shoulder, the shirt half-unbuttoned showing his lovely collarbones and freckles and a hint of red gold hair at his chest. There was still sorrow in his eyes, but joy as well, and he reached out towards Molly, no spell in his hand, just an invitation: Come be with me, stay with me, be mine and let me be yours, always.

"This is pretty fucked up, isn't it, Mighty Nein?" Molly asked aloud. The smile on the depiction of Caleb seemed to shift in the light reflecting off the surface of the water, turning up in a wicked little quirk. Molly could almost hear him:

"Is it not always so, Mister Mollymauk? Time for that later, ja?"

Molly sighed, heart aching, and palmed his cock under the water.

"Look at me," Molly sighed. "I miss you so much already that I'm about to have a grief wank barely an hour after you've gone."

Molly half shut his eyes, about to let himself imagine all the things that he wished they’d done together, only to be interrupted by a knock, followed immediately by the door opening.

“Hey, um… so we should probably-- are you fucking jerking it in here?”

Molly snarled in frustration, punching the and spinning around to glare at Vax.

“Not anymore. In or out.”

Vax glared back, remaining in the doorway.

“How about I wait outside and you put some fucking clothes on?”

At this point, Molly had had so much more than enough.

“Vax’ildan, I was having the best day I’ve had in a  _ long _ time, and you fucked it up for me with your bullshit, so you can either get in the bath and we have this conversation, or you can get the fuck out.”

Vax shifted from foot to foot, glancing back the way he’d come and then up at the ceiling, looking like he might create a third option and just stab Molly instead.

“I don’t want my own bloody  _ nephew  _ seeing me naked, thanks!”

“Well I didn’t want an uncle, so we’re all fucking disappointed today. I’m closing my eyes now, in or out.”

Molly shut his eyes so hard that he expected there to be some sort of slamming sound.

“I don’t hear moving, Vax’ildan!”

“You were  _ just _ jer--”

“I’d just started, and believe me, you surely put a stop to that!” Molly snapped, eyes still shut tight. He heard a sigh, and at last, a rustle, then a  _ splish _ as, presumably, Vax got in the water.

“Didn’t want an uncle,” Vax muttered.

“Can I open my eyes yet without you having a crisis?” Molly asked.

“Fine,” came the sulky answer, so Molly did. Vax was sitting across from him, in the tub as he’d demanded, but looking like a sullen wet sable in his  _ also _ entirely black smallclothes. 

“You’re ridiculous,” Molly said incredulously. “I have an uncle, and he’s a ridiculous feathery asshole.”

“ _ I’m _ the asshole?” Vax exclaimed, flailing his arms in the water. “You broke your mother’s heart you purple  _ prick _ . But you don’t know about any of that, do you? Don’t want to either, am I right?”

“Hi there,” Molly said patiently, “I’m Mollymauk Tealeaf of the Mighty Nein, formerly of the Fletching and Moondrop Travelling Carnival of Curiosities, presently intermediary of Sehanine, the Lady Moonweaver, and you have mistaken me for someone else, presumably Lucien No-Known-Last-Name, stupid nickname of Nonagon. I remember exactly fuck all of being him.”

Vax shook his head, the ends of his hair skimming the water.

“Bullshit,” he retorted. “Not remembering when you were alive was amnesia. You are a fucking demi-god, Lucien, so now it’s a choice. You’re choosing to say fuck you to all the people who cared about you.”

Molly smiled, broad and sharp.

“Vax’ildan? Call me Lucien one more godsdamned time and see what happens,” he said, quiet and hard and oh-so-pleasant. “Do you know how my life,  _ my _ life, started? I clawed my way out of a grave because Lucien talked his friends or followers into burying him alive. You’re the hand of death, weren’t you there? You know more about it than I do, certainly.”

Something in Vax’s face had changed, stubborn anger giving way to sorrow.

“Yeah,” Vax said. “I was there. I’ve… I can be… I’m sort of everywhere at fucking once, actually. So I saw you-- him-- get buried alive. I saw your last fight with your mum and dad. I saw you born. I saw you climb back out of that grave. I saw you never spare a thought for whoever you might’ve left behind. I saw Pike and Keyleth try to scry for you and find nothing. I watched your mother search the world for you, but you were nowhere to be found. I watched her go back to her family,  _ your family _ , wracked with guilt at being empty handed, at failing you, at having to stop looking because your brothers and sisters and dad needed her too.”

Molly winced. Brothers. Sisters. Was there some little child who mourned Lucien the way Toya had mourned Kylre? 

“If he had so much, then what the fuck happened?” Molly asked. “Happy people don’t get buried alive by choice. I feel like that’s a fair statement.”

Vax dragged a wet hand over his face and glared.

“All or nothing,” he said after a moment. “You don’t get to pick and choose. If you want to know about your family,  _ our _ family, you have to hear it all.”

“Then all,” Molly said, “since you’ve already taken nothing from me. But you have to hear as well, then, what it was like, coming out of that grave. You don’t have to like it, but if you’re going to judge me for not searching for people I couldn’t remember, then you’re going to hear how it  _ felt. _ You saw it all happened, but you don’t know. You don’t. That’s the deal I’m offering. Take it or leave it, and leave.”

Vax stuck his hand out. Molly leaned halfway across the pool and they met, straining toward the middle to shake. They both sat back, retreating to their sides like fighters to their corners.

And they were silent.

And remained that way.

“Well?!” Molly finally demanded. Vax at least had the decency to look a bit embarrassed.

“Fuck off, trying to think of where to start,” he replied. If asked, Molly would swear that he was just being impatient, not taking pity on Vax, when he said,

“You keep bringing up his… my mother. Tell me about her.”

Having a first step seemed to set Vax at ease a bit, or as at ease as he could be fully clothed but for his armor in a bath house across from a nude Molly.

“Your mum’s name is Vex’ahlia, Vex to her friends. Born Vex’ahlia Vessar. I’m her twin, older by moments. We were two halves of a whole. We lived with our human mother the first ten years of our lives, but then our shithead elven father decided we’d be better off with him. He took us to a city called Syngorn, and tried to raise us as proper elves. Problem with that is that none of the full-blooded elves would ever think we were proper elves. Fucked your mum up a bit, that, never being good enough for them, or our father. So we ran away. When we got back to our mother’s village, she’d been killed by a dragon, the whole village annihilated. For a long while after that it was just me and her.

“But we fell in with a group of really good friends, who became our family. She married one of them, actually. She’s basically a fuckin’ princess now.”

Molly nodded.

“She sounds lovely.”

“Oh fuck you,” Vax sighed. Molly raised his hands in the universal gesture of ‘what the fuck, man?’ “I told you: You broke her heart.”

“I’ve never met her!” Molly protested. “How did  _ Lucien _ break her heart?”

Vax glared, but eventually relented.

“You’re your parents’ third child. Vesper is the eldest, Xelda’s second. You’re third by about seven minutes.”

“I’ve heard twins run in families,” Molly said. “Is she a tiefling too?”

At that, Vax’s face fell a bit.

“No. Just you. That’s sort of where the troubles began. You… Whitestone, your father’s city, they’d been through a lot. They were under the thumb of vampires for five years, subject to arbitrary cruelty and murder. These vampires, the Briarwoods, courted horrible powers, trying to bring to power an archlich turned god. The murdered your father’s whole family when he was a boy; only he and your sister survived. Your father courted some very dark powers himself in getting his revenge, and…”

Vax trailed off.

“And thus, one of his offspring got to be a lilac-skinned, crimson-eyed demi-god, but I suppose Lucien didn’t see it that way,” Molly finished jovially. Vax’s face did an interesting tango between irritated and sad. 

“No one in Whitestone would ever say it to his face, but… Lucien picked up on the way people looked at him early in life. Your father blamed himself for all of it, which, yeah, technically, but your mum thought it was all nonsense. You’ve got two tiefling aunties, and your mum remembered what it was like to be a half-elf growing up in a city where they had a hard time considering anyone who wasn’t a full-blooded elf to be much better than livestock, so she just wasn’t having it. But she couldn’t protect Lucien from the whole world, and it made him grow up sad, and angry. 

“Your dad caught him-- you-- fuck, this is confusing, researching some dark shit, there was a big blowout fight, and Lucien ran away. They gave you some time, hoping that it’d help you find yourself, but after six months, your mum went looking. You’d learned a lot from her, and you didn’t make it easy, and one day, the trail just went cold. Your mum got your druid and cleric aunties to try to scry for you, but… they couldn’t find you either. Sendings were never answered. Eventually, she had to give up and return home.”

Molly sighed. 

“I don’t suppose anyone in the family tried some radical honesty to try to remedy this whole situation, did they?”

Vax shrugged.

“That was my thing, sorry.”

Molly scoffed.

“That was  _ your _ thing? You made a bet with a lunatic to specifically avoid me finding out the truth!”

Vax said nothing for a moment, looking smaller in the water, clothes drenched to his sides.

“...you’ve got a point.” 

Molly splashed him, and while Vax was sputtering, shifted a bit closer in the tub, still far off, but a more oblique angle. Less of a staring contest.

“You little shit,” Vax muttered, as Molly shrugged. “They still hope you’ll return home.”

Molly sighed deeply. 

“I’ll think about it. I can’t promise you more than that. However, all this still doesn’t answer what your  _ fucking  _ problem is with Caleb. Regarding Caleb. Whatever.”

“I’m a bit serious about that,” Vax said. “I may have come at it from a bad place, but Mollymauk… he could have a happy life while he’s alive. There’s that drow fellow, Essek, he certainly seems interested. Just… think about that too, please? I’ve been angry at you, at Lucien, for a long time, but that’s… Think about it.”

Molly shrank down deeper into the water, looking up at the ceiling of his bath house.

“I’m in love with him,” Molly said.

“I know,” Vax said. “But you’ve got to do the right thing for him because you love him.”

Molly sighed.

“Tell me more about our fucking family,” he grumbled.

Vax smiled, and did. 

**Author's Note:**

> I owed y'all some awkward family conversations for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 
> 
> My Clay sibling OC Camelia's coloration is heavily inspired by Camelia’s is heavily inspired by [this adorable piece of art by Bunbunko.](https://bunbunko.tumblr.com/post/189211819455/baby-clay-and-mama-clay)
> 
> Also, just in case anyone had concerns: No. Noooo shippy vibes in this fic between Vax and Molly.


End file.
